Latest cybersecurity reporting from selected sources.

It’s possible to leak PII describing 5.7 million people without breaching privacy rules

WhatsApp is finally allowing users to reserve usernames, a privacy feature that lets them hide their phone numbers from people not in their contact list. [...]

WhatsApp on Monday officially announced the start of global reservations of usernames with an aim to protect the privacy of more than three billion users on the messaging platform

Investigators Found Months of Unchecked Database Scraping ActivitySouth Korea's privacy regulator fined Coupang a record 624.7 billion won after concluding that weak authentication controls, insider access abuse, evidence destruction and unauthorized data collection contributed to the exposure of personal information belonging to 33.7 million people.

The UK’s ICO has fined Reddit over £14m for failing to use children’s personal information lawfully

Regulators Cite Sales of Sensitive Health, Demographic DataCalifornia state regulators fined a Texas company that buys and sells data for targeted marketing, including lists pertaining to health conditions of older adults, as part of a crackdown on data brokers. The firm is now banned from selling all Californians' personal information.

California privacy regulator, the CPPA, is cracking down on data brokers trading personal data without authorization

The California Privacy Protection Agency (CalPrivacy) has taken action against the  Datamasters marketing firm that sold the health and personal data of millions of users without being registered as a data broker. [...]

Google on Tuesday unveiled a new privacy-enhancing technology called Private AI Compute to process artificial intelligence (AI) queries in a secure platform in the cloud

System prompt engineering turns benign AI assistants into 'investigator' and 'detective' roles that bypass privacy guardrails A team of boffins is warning that AI chatbots built on large language models (LLM) can be tuned into malicious agents to autonomously harvest users’ personal data, even by attackers with "minimal technical expertise”, thanks to "system prompt" customization tools from OpenAI and others.…

China officially rolled out a voluntary Internet identity system to protect citizens' online identities and personal information, but critics worry about privacy and surveillance.

Google has stepped in to address a security flaw that could have made it possible to brute-force an account's recovery phone number, potentially exposing them to privacy and security risks

Michelle Dennedy of Abaxx on Why Privacy Demands Curiosity and AccountabilityAI has reignited a debate on privacy. While some argue the era of personal data protections is over, others see AI as an opportunity to apply precision, nuance and contextual decision-making to data governance, said Michelle Dennedy, chief data strategy officer, Abaxx Technologies.

European Commission Also Fines Apple 500 Million EurosEuropean regulators said Facebook conducted an end run around privacy regulations by requiring users to pay a monthly subscription fee or else accept that their personal data would be fed to advertisers. The European Commission fined the social media giant 200 million euros.

Regulators Cite Privacy Concerns Over DeepSeek's Data Collection PracticesThe Personal Information Protection Commission, South Korea's data protection regulator, has directed Chinese artificial intelligence company DeepSeek AI to withdraw its chatbot application from official app stores pending an inquiry into the chatbot's compliance with data protection rules.

South Korea’s Personal Information Protection Commission is blocking DeepSeek AI downloads over privacy concerns

South Korea has formally suspended new downloads of Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot DeepSeek in the country until the service makes changes to its mobile apps to comply with data protection regulations

'In 50 years, I think we'll view these business practices like we view sweatshops today' Interview It has been nearly a decade since famed cryptographer and privacy expert Bruce Schneier released the book Data and Goliath: The Hidden Battles to Collect Your Data and Control Your World - an examination of how government agencies and tech giants exploit personal data. Today, his predictions feel eerily accurate.…

Experts Cast Nervous Eye on Musk and Team's Handling of Health-Related InfoPrivacy experts are keeping a nervous eye on the potential for compromises involving Americans' health and personal information resulting from the White House's Department of Government Efficiency - led by Elon Musk - accessing government IT systems containing Medicare and health related data.

Italy's data protection watchdog has blocked Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) firm DeepSeek's service within the country, citing a lack of information on its use of users' personal data